The Natural

by Autumn Stephens | February 24, 2016

In 2011, a horrific accident in Los Angeles left Andy Hnilo ’06 with a shattered jaw, seven crushed ribs, and a collapsed lung. “I am very lucky to be alive,” said Hnilo, now CEO of the skincare company Alitura Naturals, who was run over by two SUVs as he attempted to cross Melrose Avenue on foot.

But Hnilo—a model and actor, as well as a former Division I athlete who played baseball for the Gaels under head coach Jedd Soto—bounced back with a vengeance, resuming his customary intensive workouts before he could even chew again. Seven weeks later, he walked the runway for Macy’s (a pre-accident booking he saw no reason to cancel), just one day after his jaw wires were removed.

“My smile was crooked,” recalled Hnilo, now 33. But his skin glowed, and his modeling career remained intact—thanks, he said, to kicked-up nutrition and a healing facial mask he formulated for himself in his bedroom-turned-lab “with 1,100 pounds of food-grade ingredients and a mixer from Home Depot.”

A communications major who attended UC Berkeley and Sacramento State before transferring to SMC, Hnilo considered careers in baseball and sports broadcasting. But within weeks of graduation, he’d moved to Los Angeles, followed his actor roommate to an audition on a whim—and landed the lead role in The Great American Dream, an independent film about college baseball.“Things began to fall in place,” he said.

But after the accident, Hnilo found himself drawn in yet another professional direction. With his own face as testimony, he went on to launch Alitura Naturals in 2014, adding “entrepreneur” to a CV studded with gigs for Calvin Klein, Coppertone, Levis, and Oakley, and roles on shows like Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful.

“For so long I was wondering what I was going to do with my life,” said Hnilo, who aims to make Alitura Naturals a household name, and to inspire others who have suffered devastating events. But these days, he’s taking time to smell the roses as well as reach for the stars. “Chewing, smiling, running—these are things that I definitely don't take for granted anymore,” he said.